Here’s a debut album by the Italian trio of Manuel Caliumi/as, Luca Zennaro/g and Riccardo Cocetti/dr, mixing a bit of original material with a clever take of a Baby Boomer hit. The team is bold, brash and a bit quirky, but they keep it fluid and fresh.
Caliumi works overtime repeating the theme of “Exp 3” around Zennaro’s askance strings, whle the latter gets quite lyrical over the flowing support of sax and drums on “Cedrus Libani”. Cocetti changes tones and dynamics as he hits hard and bold during “Pleas Try Again” while leading the jabs and stabs for sax and guitar during “On Off”. Caliumi’s reed is warm on a creative take of The Beatles’ “Yesterday” while ambient effects close things out on the environmental “Roots”. They put the “play” back in “interplay”.